I went to the manual for my '87 FJ and was surprised to find out that the timing is not adjustable. How do you guys deal with octane ping? I use 93 and still get a fair ammount of it. With 87 forget it.....
Never encountered that with my 87 and I used 89 octane. Try and octane booster and if that doesnt solve the problem than timing is not your problem.
Running the correct plugs? Not overheating?
Your fuel mix might be lean...just an idea.
I ran 'premium' for years (used to be 95?, now down to 91 octane). At last years rally, a few folks convinced me that I could run 87, and I have been since. I finally heard some pinging Saturday, after 45 min of carb sync (w/fans cooling), then a quick test ride. 87 is OK for 99.9% of my riding, YMMV.
I had a similar problem on my 86, I put in one step colder plugs and run premium gas.
when riding I keep the rpms at 5k or higher.
are you pinging at speed or just when you lug it? or is it every time you accelerate?
It happens when I lug and try to accelerate. I was out on Marthas Vineyard last weekend and all I could get was 87 octane. It became really bad.
When I got the bike it had this hideous exhaust system made up from flex-pipe and a set of Yoshimura cans on the end. When I put the stock exhaust back on it had kind of a pretty bad bog when I snapped the throttle open. Went 1 notch leaner on the needle jet and 98% of it was gone (presumption that the hideous exhaust was less restrictive). I didn't feel like pulling the whole carb set out for a 3rd or 4th time to get the last little bit....Reason being that I don't THINK I am running lean, although yanking a couple of plugs should tell the story for 100% certain.
Any idea off-hand what the next COLDER plug is?
Quote from: cadmanmadman on September 14, 2009, 02:30:52 PM
It happens when I lug and try to accelerate.
When do you shift? At what Rpm do you leave 3rd gear. I'm making no assumptions about your skills or knowledge as a rider but keep in mind its an inline 4 and you don't make REAL power till after 4K. If you're in the wrong gear its going to lug and ping.
My minimum shift point on the 87 was 4-5k MINIMUM, maybe a little sooner from 1st to 2nd gear.
Another possibility is carbon buildup in the combustion chambers (raises the CR).
If pulling your plugs doesn't reveal serious issues, put about half a bottle of fuel injector cleaner (I'm partial to Gumout silver bottle) in the gas next time you fill up. It also works as an octane booster, so it should help the ping right away. Take the bike out, and run the motor fairly hard. Uphill is better. If nothing else it'll help clean your carbs, and should help blow out any accumulated crud.
Hope this helps,
threejagsteve
My admittedly simple understanding of this is that with advanced timing, higher octane fuel is required. I never had to run anything other than the lowest available octane fuel that was available and I never had pinging. Given this, I wonder if it's possible you have advanced timing of some sort? I just have not read where the FJ is prone to pinging, but maybe it's more prevalent than I am aware. Others?
Dan
How old and what type of plug are you using?
Quote from: Dan Filetti on September 14, 2009, 09:23:20 PM
My admittedly simple understanding of this is that with advanced timing, higher octane fuel is required. I never had to run anything other than the lowest available octane fuel that was available and I never had pinging. Given this, I wonder if it's possible you have advanced timing of some sort? I just have not read where the FJ is prone to pinging, but maybe it's more prevalent than I am aware. Others?
Never been a problem with either of my FJs. They both run fine on 87 octane, and that's the crappy oxygenated and ethanoled swill that they pass as fuel down here.
The 85 has a Wiseco 1188 10.25:1 kit with degreed cams. Ran great with the V&H advancer and now has no problem with the Dyna ignition on the most aggressive advance curve.
DavidR.
Never been a problem with my '90... and I let her lug down pretty bad sometimes in traffic. I also shift around 1700-2000 when I'm just cruising around town or commuting.... never heard any pinging. I've run regular forever....
I'm using the stock plugs called for in the manual. The engine has 12,000 mi on it.....Its quite clean and unmolested. All stock except for K&N air filters that I re-jetted for.
With 89 Oct it pings pretty bad. With 91 its marginal.
I think I need only a tiny bit of help. I'm going to try & de-carbon and run the next cooler plug and high octane as you all have suggested.
If that doesn't cure it I will say something is wrong.
:shok: :shok: :shok:
I'm wondering about the gasoline you all use for your bikes.
Here in Italy we have 95 octane minimum. If we want something plus, we can fill 98 octane, named V-Power in Shell company. But also other brands have 98.
87 octane remember me when I was child, in 70's, and my father used the "old" 91 octane gasoline.
In the States, we use RON+MON/2 to grade our gasoline, IIRC, Europe use RON exclusively.... so the European numbers are higher for the same grade.
oh, this is the reason.
So, thanx alot RichBaker. I thoght something different.
check and see if the vacuum hose to the electronic "black box" is connected or cracked
It may be a lean run condition
I did some checking into part numbers and there was no difference in shift forks or drum from 86 to to 93. So the fork changes were in all fj1200 engines. Part numbers for shift cam and forks are "1TX" which is the 86 model standard prefix. So only strange things (which could be part changes) in fiches were that the 86/87 have a few parts with "3CV" part numbers (89 prefix), which leads me to believe that back compatible upgrades or (hopeful upgrades) were done.
Quote from: capitanoinsano on October 03, 2009, 06:32:24 PM
I did some checking into part numbers and there was no difference in shift forks or drum from 86 to to 93. So the fork changes were in all fj1200 engines. Part numbers for shift cam and forks are "1TX" which is the 86 model standard prefix. So only strange things (which could be part changes) in fiches were that the 86/87 have a few parts with "3CV" part numbers (89 prefix), which leads me to believe that back compatible upgrades or (hopeful upgrades) were done.
. I bought the 91 shift forks and did a side by side comparison with my stock 86 shift forks.....they are not the same part....the late model shift forks are much beefier in every respect....... once the part was updated the old part number disappeared.
BTW mine was jumping out of second quite regularly (i'm a big fan of the kookaloo) once that shift fork is bent the game is over..... but the dogs and windows in my 2/5 gear set were not in bad shape at all and could have easily been re used with just a bit of undercutting... which you are going to want to do even if you buy a new gear set as i did.... my advice is to save the money on the new gears and replace all the shift forks with the current part number shift forks instead.
problem solved.
Kookaloo!